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Thinking about selling that bootlegged BOC coffee mug on eBay? Well think again because the Bone of Contention band name has been trademarked and only yours truly is authorized to sell such nick nacks!

BOC has received a full paid scholarship to the Independent Music Conference here in LA this year. I have not attended one of these conferences before but I am excited for the opportunity to meet everyone, network and most importantly learn as much as possible. The whole music landscape is evolving very quickly and it’s getting increasingly difficult to keep up with everything. Big time thanks to IMC founder Noel Ramos and sponsor Bill Pere for selecting BOC and giving us a chance to shine!

Ok music fans, time to check out a new music video for the Fickle Finger of Fate. This was directed by Andrew Leary who did a great job dealing with my obsessiveness over trivial details. I’m already being asked about this, but that is Janice’s little autistic granddaughter at the very end.
Enjoy!

Well it’s Grammy night here in LA, but unfortunately BOC has been completely overlooked and has not been nominated for album/song/record of the year, best new artist, best rock, best performance by a duo or group or any other bullshit category they have now. I have never watched the Grammys on TV and I certainly won’t be starting this year, but it occurred to me that I have always regarded NOT being nominated for a Grammy (or any other stupid music award) as a badge of honor. After all, how many really cool influential bands have Grammys? How many ground breaking genre-defining albums were even nominated? The White Album? Are You Experienced? Dark Side of the Moon? Who’s Next? Zeppelin 4? Paranoid? Nevermind? Anything by Bowie? The Doors? WTF? The list is endless. Google any of the past 50 years of Grammy nominations and you will find a baron wastland of totally forgotton music that was manufactured for mass appeal at that particular time with no other redeeming quality (hence, quickly forgotten to make room for the next year’s crap). These awards are nothing more than thinly-veiled publicity stunts and have NOTHING to do with good music (let alone “best” anything). The classic bands that were ignored and passed over in their heyday were not motivated to greatness with sugary thoughts of hoisting some trophy in front of their peers like they just won the Super Bowl. I can only speak for BOC, but I don’t mind to be spared such embarrassment. Besides, these shows are predetermined and fixed to maximize profits for the labels (I make it my business to know these things)…

We have hit the reset button and hired director Andrew Leary to put together a music video for ‘Fickle Finger of Fate’. This will be quite a departure from the ‘Bad Karma’ video, but I promise that it won’t suck! Stay tuned!!

I’m shocked and saddened to hear about the sudden passing of Brian Leggett, who was the Director of Photography for the Bad Karma video. The positivity of yesterday’s post regarding the small youtube success has been completely dashed to bits with this news. I’m very grateful for the job that he and the rest of the crew did to make this video happen and I just hope that I wasn’t too demanding on them. He was far too young to leave us now but I’m just glad that I had the opportunity to know him and to be part of his artistic legacy.

While I wasn’t looking, the music video for Bad Karma zoomed past the 100,000 view mark on YouTube. I really wasn’t sure what to expect here, but I didn’t think that this many views would happen in 4 1/2 months. I realize now where people now go to find new music. When I was a kid, there was the FM radio, MTV (if you could stomach it) & word of mouth. I know radio is still a factor, but now, thanks to the interwebs, there are a hundred other avenues to search, but YouTube is clearly emerging as thee source to find new stuff. Second video is forthcoming so stay tuned…

I did a gig this past weekend with my friend Dyna’s Led Zep tribute band and it was a blast! It got me to think, how do I know all these songs? I barely needed to rehearse. I was a little kid when Zep was in their heyday but all their stuff is firmly embedded in my subconscious. How could that be? Basically, I was lucky. I was exposed at an early age to what is now considered ‘classic rock’ and many of those bands influence me to this day (along with the jazz that my dad used to play). Most bands get stuck on trying to sound ‘current’ (e.g., just like all the other bands out that particular week) which is a guaranteed recipe for sucking. I don’t care about becoming famous, only about creating cool music.